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At Mountain West Swords Academy, the air rings with the sounds of battle. The shuffle of feet and the clang of blades meeting blades can only mean one thing: students of all experience levels are busy mastering the sports of foil, épée, and saber fencing. Novices start in the introduction-to-fencing class, where they gain comfort with provided equipment, including electronic scoring systems and the foil—the weapon that was traditionally used in most 18th-century duels over unclaimed parking spaces. After polishing their parries and footwork, students take their newfound skills to the competition floor, where they compete with other fencers of similar experience levels.

Dr. Katie Short teaches her patients how healing happens from within. But she does more than talk about it; she demonstrates the body’s ability to recover from a wide range of ailments by performing strictly noninvasive and drug-free techniques. After a thorough consultation and exam, she sets to work stimulating the body’s internal balancing mechanisms with manual spinal adjustments. To round out her services, she works elbow to elbow with licensed acupuncturist Jessie Maxwell. Jessie triggers some of the same healing energies as Dr. Short, but with hair-thin needles instead of adjustments.

The services at Westminster Community Acupuncture are all about letting the body heal itself. The team there helps patrons avoid invasive surgeries and drugs with side effects with simple procedures, many of them thousands of years old. Thin, single-use needles spur our natural self-healing powers during acupuncture sessions, which are intended to target energy centers and bolster immune response and improve cellular function. Massage, whether it is Swedish, pre-natal, or one of a range of other styles, uses pressure on the body to bring various parts into harmony. Cupping, on the other hand, uses a warm cup to apply suction to the body, making it in some ways the inverse of massage, though both techniques can treat a wide range of discomfort and ailments.

Building on his experience as a chi gong practitioner and martial artist, R. Scott Malone began practicing acupuncture and herbal medicine in 1998. Since then, as a licensed acupuncturist and the owner of Dragon Turtle Acupuncture and Healing Arts, he's combined these experiences with a thorough knowledge of the human body to help clients heal. Using acupuncture needles or acupressure techniques, he taps into each client's meridian system to regulate their energy pathways. Both processes work to restore the body's internal energy flow, addressing issues ranging from migraines and illness to addiction and other mental disorders.

The trainers at Gym-Synergy temper their students' bodies for more than just fitness. They combine more than 40 years of training experience in mixed martial arts and fighting styles such as Kenpo to guide students toward self-preservation. Lessons in the Filipino Kali method, for instance, teach students how to defend themselves with their hands, sticks, swords, and knives while stressing the importance of acquiring intelligence and discipline. Students can also learn techniques for self-defense in tight spaces, while sitting down, and against multiple attackers. Cardio-kickboxing classes, on the other hand, focus on the body's endurance and composition, using the method's kicks and punches more as aerobic exercise than as instruction for what to do to the next donut you see.